The problem of reducing the theft of motor vehicles and the like has received great attention within recent years and by numerous and widely varied approaches.
The frustration with the consequences of dangerous high speed chases, many of which result in serious injuries, and often to innocent bystanders, has even engendered the use of a system commonly known as "stop sticks" that requires the police to get in front of the chased vehicle and place a line of spikes in its path. Aside from the clumsiness of this tactic and the obvious hazard to the police and public from the vehicle with flat tires hurling at them at a high rate of speed, new technology in tires has produced a line of tires that can run some fifty miles without air in them.
The dangers to police in their pursuit of stolen automobiles, as well as the danger to the stolen vehicles, property and the public occasioned by such pursuit, are unfortunately all too well known; but, until the present invention, largely without adequate solution. Police cars often receive radio-telephone information from other police cars or communications centers to vector then onto the course of stolen vehicles; and, in the highly successfully LoJack.RTM. System (U.S. Pat. No. 4,818,998), police cars track radio transponders hidden in appropriately equipped vehicles to locate them--and, if being operated, to pursue them.
Even once the police have stopped a vehicle, however, they are still subject to the serious risk that the operator can speed off again, often running them down or even shooting the officer in so escaping.
The thrust of the approach underlying the present invention quite differently resides in the use of radiation signal transmissions (radio, light, infrared, etc.) externally to control the further unauthorized operation of appropriately receiver-equipped vehicles by remotely automatically disabling the operation of the vehicle engines in response to the reception of such transmissions.
It has previously been proposed, as, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,453,730, remotely to control the unauthorized use of a vehicle by transmitting a radiation signal to a receiver disposed in that vehicle in order to initiate a warning to the unauthorized driver, as by illuminating the brake and hazard lights, that, within a short time, the fuel to the fuel pump will be automatically shut-off, as by the operation of a triggered centrifugal switch also responsive to the received signal and activated after the short time delay period.
A myriad of other anti-theft proposals of this and similar character involving transmitting signals to de-activate power or control circuits in the vehicle to disable the same have also been proposed, including those of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,307,048; 5,417,090; 5,486,806; 5,477,090; 5,506,562; 5,563,453; 5,652,564; 5,608,272; 5,623,245; and 5,729,192. These approaches, moreover, require the vehicle owners to engage the system to have it operated.
While useful in varying degrees for the vehicle owner to try to protect the unauthorized operation of the owner's vehicle, these and other prior suggestions, however, fall far short of providing effective systems for the specific problems and applications underlying the present invention; namely, for use by pursuing or tracking police vehicles--and, in that connection, not only enabling fool-proof remote disabling of the unauthorized operating vehicle, but to do so in controlled stages, and thus with controlled safety to other vehicles in the area, to property and to pedestrians, to the pursuing police officers and their vehicles, and to the unauthorized vehicle operator himself or herself.
In accordance with the present invention, these problems are admirably solved in vehicles equipped with special anti-theft receivers and control circuits that enable pursuing police cars that have been provided with a special radiation transmitter, for remotely directing signals from the pursuing police car towards the fleeing vehicle, effectively, safely and automatically to disable the engine of that vehicle in stages of speed reduction or slow-down. This is a vital safety feature, allowing the police to select a safe spot, away from the general public, for fully stopping the vehicle, and for avoiding the consequences of an abrupt stop.